Skip to main content

Museum Accessibility

Resources for People With and Without Disabilities

Small boy in wheelchair plays with artist
Museum Accommodations

Crystal Bridges is committed to making the museum accessible for all visitors. Please note that our efforts to make our website, programs, and museum more accessible are ongoing. If you encounter any accessibility concerns, please contact us.

Museum Accommodations

Crystal Bridges offers a number of on-site accommodations for guests with disabilities in order to assure an enjoyable and engaging experience at the museum. Below is a list of amenities available. If you have questions, please contact us.

Mobility

All interior spaces of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art—including galleries, classrooms, meeting rooms, restaurant, Museum Store, library, and lobby—are fully wheelchair accessible. The parking garage offers accessible parking on the lower level.

Wheelchair and family-accessible restrooms and elevators are located throughout the museum.

Wheelchairs and walkers are available on a first-come, first-served basis at no cost and are located at Guest Services in the Garrison Lobby, in the elevator tower, and in the lower lobby checkroom. Personal wheelchairs, canes with rubber tips, and motorized mobility devices are also permitted in the museum.

The Orchard Trail, Art Trail and North Forest Trail are all hard-surface trails. See the CB Outdoors app for accessible tours of our grounds.

Service Animals

Service animals are welcome in the museum. Crystal Bridges abides by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and allows service animals, that is, animals trained to do work or perform specific tasks for the benefit of an individual with disabilities, into all the public areas of the museum. The ADA does not currently recognize emotional support animals, therefore emotional support animals and all other animals not specifically covered in the American with Disabilities Act will not be permitted within the museum. Other leashed pets must remain outside the building, which includes Walker Landing, but are welcome on museum trails and grounds.

Lighting

Because Crystal Bridges has many large windows that admit daylight, the light levels in the museum can vary considerably between galleries and connecting reflection spaces. Guests with light sensitivity may choose to visit on cloudy days or in the evening when these contrasts are not so pronounced.

When there are exhibitions featuring artworks with flashing lights, signage notifying visitors of where these lights are located will be available. Additionally, Buckyball by Leo Villareal is a sculpture located on the drive into the museum with lights that change colors in the evening.

Assistive Listening Devices

Assistive Listening Devices are available on a first-come, first-served basis for those participating in lectures or other events in the Great Hall. For all other programs or tours, they are available by request.

Sign Language Interpretation

Sign Language interpretation for all programs and tours is offered upon request with advanced notice based on availability. Please contact us.

Translation

The museum offers select materials and brochures in multiple languages, including Spanish and Marshallese, as well as guided tours in Spanish upon request. All art gallery labels feature bilingual content in English and Spanish, as well as a majority of the audio tours. When multimedia content is included in exhibitions, every effort is made to include bilingual captions. Portions of our website are being translated into Spanish as well.

Captioning

Open Captioning is available for lectures or other events in the Great Hall. Open captions or transcript binders are also available for videos in our exhibition spaces.

Access for Guests Who are Blind or Have Low Vision

Listen to our free verbal description audio tour. Additional free audio tours that include audio label text for selected artworks from the museum’s permanent collection are available for download on Android or Apple devices. Devices pre-loaded with the audio tours, to use during your visit to the museum, are available for check-out from Guest Services at no cost.

Free tactile and multisensory tours of the museum are offered upon request with advanced notice based on availability. To schedule a tour, please contact us.

EnChroma Glasses for Colorblindness

EnChroma colorblind glasses are available for guests who are colorblind to use at no cost during their museum visit. The museum can provide glasses for indoor and outdoor viewing in adult and youth sizes, and there are also fit-over glasses available for guests who wear regular glasses.

These glasses are available for check-out at the Guest Services desks in the Garrison Lobby, as well as the south lobby. To check-out, please present a form of ID to leave at the Guest Services desk while you use the glasses during your museum visit. Color-blind glasses are supported by Neff and Scarlett Basore.

Digital Resources

Looking for access and inclusive programs?

See the access programs page